(brief comment was from phone, much prefer proper keyboard when possible, and with an iMac in the lounge, I now have a hot coffee too!)

Anyway, unless you need the portability of a laptop, you might find a s/h iMac a worthwhile purchase. 2 of the ones I bought are 17", 3 are 20", one is plugged into 42" TV for watching TV Catchup (I have the Android app on a few phones) and some even had extras (such as MS Office for Mac {2011}, installed).

Just my twopenneth - I will not consider the prices Apple charges for new (or even the refurbished cost) because they don't seem good value for money, but second-hand, I will consider, and while the models I have won't all go up to latest versions of OSX, they're still pretty good machines and provide me plenty of storage, etc.

No way would I spend 600+ on a single system (when I could put Linux on a 300 pound desktop unit and have 1 TB of storage, 8 GB RAM, and masses of processing power). Saw a used Apple <something> at near 800 quid s/h in a shop the other day, and I suspect it will stay there for a while, since all the other laptops are 250 to 400. OK, the shop will have applied a markup, but perhaps worth checking Ebay unless you will only ever accept a "new" and "untouched" unit.

To be honest yes sometimes I do miss the drive, not massively, but I do sometimes have CDs that I want to put on to iTunes and would be nice to sometimes watch a DVD in bed

Having said that I clearly don't miss it that much as I've had the air a year and haven't bought a separate drive yet (I'm sure you'll know you can buy them separately. You can also share another laptop's drive but I haven't been able to use that function as like you I had a rubbish pc that broke so I don't have another computer that has a drive that I can use)

You will use it. I love mine. It really is different to using an iPad although they seem a similarish weight and screen size

It's just nice having a proper working laptop to sit at a desk with (as opposed to an iPad/iPhone)

You will already know how well apple products work. If you have an air you can again synch everything up with iPad etc

The only thing i would say is the screen can seem small compared to some laptops and not much bigger than an ipad. If you wanted something a bit bigger you could go for a Mac mini (which is a bit bigger but without the imac price). You would need to purchase a separate monitor so can go up to tv proportions.

I have an iPad 2 which I am pretty much glued to. If I'm not glued to the IPad, I'm glued to the iPhone. My laptop is really on its last legs and is so slow and annoying and frustrating that I haven't used it in months. (It's a Dell studio and I've had it for 5 years).

Now, I miss having a working laptop and the MBA is so fast, and pretty...But will I use it? Or will I still mainly use the iPad?